12. Forming a plan
Nothing else worth mentioning happened after that. Shu had forced himself to eat his meal and had continued his smalltalk with Inori and Jun. Until it had finally been time for the meeting he had made sure no one would forget.
For that reason, everyone of importance met at the old meeting room, which had probably once served as a lounge for employees of the factory and had then been reformed into their command center by Gai and his Undertakers afterwards. Since then, it had served as the center of the base whenever the resistance group had to come here. Tactics had been developed here and the most important announcements from Gai to the biggest players in his resistance group had also token place in this very room. Given that fact, Shu and Inori had had little reason to change that and simply had continued the tradition. After all, it was a big room while also being far away enough from the busy and loud parts of the hideout, allowing them some peace and quiet as they would discuss their most pressing matters at hand here.
The room itself was rather big, probably to hold enough people during their lunch break. It held multiple couches and other sitting opportunities, each filled with layers upon layers of dust, due to the lack of people to use them for several years. Empty flowerpots and dysfunctional vending machines also adorned the place, needless to say that the plants had long since died and withered away. A skylight enthroned the room, ensured it would be fairly lit during daytime and also invited every visitor to have an inspiring look at the sky. Well, at least a long time ago, since the windows had never been cleaned in all this time, making it quite hard to even take a look outside. Still, if one used his fantasy, he would be able to see that this lounge probably had used to be a pretty nice place back in the days it had still been used as such.
At the center of the room stood a big, round table, which looked slightky out of place, considering the other furniture present. That was because it had been put in place by Gai and had once been used to hold a lot of screens on it. They had allowed everyone present to view important data displayed on it as Gai would hold his briefings. However, unlike the equipment in Tsugumi's little communication center, the devices which had been present here, had long since ceased to function properly and thus had had to be disposed off.
Though every loss of any piece of technology had been more than regrettable to the newly formed resistance group, it couldn't be helped. Looking at it from a different angle, it at least gave them enough room to allow everyone to grab a chair and take a seat at it, instead of being forced to stand around it. Since those meetings tended to take a while, having the option to attend them in a sitting position always appeared to get appreciated by anyone present.
The king tiredly allowed himself to look up at the windows located at the roof. It had become rather dark outside, which didn't come to a big surprise to anyone since it still had been the middle of winter. He noticed snow gathering on top of them and was really relieved that the heating system of this old building had still been operational, unlike most of the other stuff that got left behind 5 years ago.
To his right, Inori sat, looking far more awake than her precious soul mate next to her did. Though it did little in the end, since she also looked quite bored and not quite motivated at all. Not that anyone could blame her. With a long and exhausting day behind her, anyone would just want to go back to their room and rest. Unfortunately for her, sharing a leader position with Shu required her to be present at every meeting, even if said meetings took place late in the evening.
To Shu's left sat Yahiro, who probably appeared the most serious among all people in the room. Surely he must have been tired as well, but if that had been the case, he seemed to be able to hide that fact quite well. He probably had been used to it since he had often mentioned that his former job had required him to work overtime more often than he would have liked to. Anyway, as the biggest tactician of the group, he couldn't afford to let his mind slack during these meetings, and thus he looked sharp as ever.
Quite the opposite of Hare, who kept yawning at certain intervals next to him, obviously not very fond over the fact that she had been woken up earlier from the relaxing sleep Shu had provided her with. Back in the void realm, she had been in charge of the infirmary and everyone working there. Now that they had escaped that cursed dimension, she had ended up filling up the same role in their resistance group, only with fewer personnel and more to do, leaving her with quite a busy schedule. Her attendance during these meetings wasn't quite mandatory, but she still showed up on every single one to show everyone how much she cared.
Opposite of Yahiro sat Argo, who as the representative of every human in Funeral Parlor and thus second instance for them to turn to, directly after Shu and Inori, could not afford to miss out on any important meetings. Since they trusted him, he had to make sure that Shu and Inori would make plans that would be in their interest. The royal couple also made use of his direct connection with the human faction to have a detailed insight about their status in Funeral Parlor. He leaned against the back of his chair and allowed his right leg to casually rest on his left knee as he awaited the start of the meeting.
His counterpart, Jun, sat at Hare's left side with both his hands folded in front of him on the table, twiddling his thumbs. What Argo was for the humans, Jun was for the Genesis. Like Hare, he had kept his role that had been bestowed upon him back in the void kingdom and continued being the guy the Genesis could come to if they didn't want to bother their queen and her king directly.
Between both representatives were the seats of Shu's step mother and step uncle, who had both taken it upon themselves to study the consequences of evolution directly to satisfy their thirst for knowledge as scientists. Especially Haruka had seemed to get really into the matter during the last few weeks, probably not least because she wanted to know what changes her son had gone through when he had returned from the void realm. Keido merely assisted her while also conducting research on his own to confirm theories he had come up with during his long imprisonment in the void limbo. Their results, though nice to have, weren't really needed during the meetings, but Shu could hardly keep his own mother out of his plans, so he always invited her to take part in them if she wanted. Keido, on the other hand, served as an important source, seeing as to how he was an Ex-Da'ath member, so his presence was more than welcome. Currently, Haruka, half asleep, leaned against Keido's shoulder, looking as if she was about to doze off any minute now. Her brother apparently couldn't be bothered by that, as was indicated by his usual poker face. He endured his sister's antics with his sheer patience and indifference.
The remaining two seats belonged to Ayase and Tsugumi, sitting between Inori and Argo. The former had taken it upon herself to train the majority of newcomers together with Argo and kept an account of the armory's inventory, while the latter obviously continued her old work of handling communications as well as overseeing maintenance of all kinds of machinery the group currently owned. However, with only one Endlave and a couple of vehicles at the group's disposal, it was safe to say that her main job consisted of the communications and Intel gathering department.
"Well now, since everyone is present, why don't we start with this meeting? The sooner we get to it, the sooner we will be done and can go to sleep." Shu finally said as he leaned forward on the table and eyed everyone briefly. He saw Keido click his fingers in front of Haruka's face to wake her, which inevitably brought a smile on his face. "As you all know, it has been two weeks since the return of the apocalypse virus, meaning that Mana has been resurrected and active for the same amount of time. It is currently not clear to us why she has not yet attempted to bring the apocalypse again, but it can only be a matter of time before she eventually will. And we will have to prevent that at all costs. Again…" He added the last bit with clearly audible annoyance which resulted in everyone else to feel the same way.
"The third time's the charm, right?" Tsugumi jokingly said, earning her some chuckles from the round of ten people.
"We have done it before, we can do it again, right?" Inori said and looked over to Shu who gave her a reassuring nod.
"Yes, though I would really like to make this the last time. For good." Everyone nodded at that.
Yahiro cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention. "For that reason, we need to form a plan. And to form a plan, you need to overview the whole picture. So please allow me to give everyone a quick briefing of our current situation, so that we all share the same state of knowledge." He then proceeded to take out a remote control from his pocket and pressed a button. A holographic image soon appeared on the middle of the table. Installed by no one else but Tsugumi, of course.
The image showed a geographic overview of Tokyo, surrounded by a thick, orange line, which symbolized the outer quarantine walls raised by the military. A significant part of the city's south eastern center was encircled by a red line, with the area inside flashing up in an alarming way in the matching color. That, undoubtedly, was loop seven…currently held by Mananites. The red circle was also surrounded by another orange line, indicating the SDF's inner quarantine wall. Three strategically important points on the map were present as well. One being located in the southern central part of loop seven, marking the location of Tennozu High, another one to the east of it at Narita Airport and the remaining one at their current location in Yokohama, to the south of loop seven.
"As you can clearly see, the enemy has seized loop seven and is supposedly using Tennozu High as their base of operation, seeing as a large crystal formation has been raised around it to fortify the structure. The SDF has trapped them inside, but is unable to gain ground on them, as was clearly shown by their failed invasion attempt on day 3 and day 8 since the lockdown." He pressed a few more buttons and the holographic projection changed the shape of the red area. At first it looked like it grew smaller on the eastern side, as the orange line pressed forward and pushed the red line further back, but soon afterwards, the orange line got pushed back again and the enemy even gained a bit of the space previously held by the orange line. Almost the same happened on the northern side of it. The military seemed to have won a bit of ground at first, but eventually god beaten back there as well.
"They haven't tried another approach ever since, but it is believed that they plan to perform another offensive soon." Yahiro continued the explanation.
"That's good. Maybe we can finally convince them that we are on their side and combine our forces against the enemy." Argo said, but only earned disapproval from Tsugumi.
"Nay, I have already tried to negotiate a truce with them, but they would have none of that. They say the only way they would listen to what Shu has to say is if he stood trial."
"Which is not an option, since I cannot possibly prove that Da'ath exists and is, in fact, responsible for this whole mess." Shu added with a frown. "They would only find me guilty and lock me away, giving Da'ath enough time to begin the apocalypse."
"But we can't fight the SDF! They are good people, who are just mistaken in their beliefs that Shu is the villain here." Argo argued, which was understandable, since he himself and a couple of his friends had been enlisted in the SDF before coming here.
Yahiro decided to speak up again. "That's why we won't fight them, but instead will use the fight they will cause as a distraction to breach their barrier surrounding loop seven and fight the Mananites somewhere else, forcing them to open up two fronts against us." Pressing additional buttons, the holo-screen showed multiple sections of the inner barrier being marked with big, green X's on the south and western sides.
"According to our scouts, these are the sections of the barrier which are the least defended and thus easiest to breach. We will realize the SDF's movement and adjust our own forces to avoid their main force while also marching through one of those weak spots. Hopefully, the SDF will be too preoccupied with the enemy to pay much attention to us, while we quickly fight our way through enemy ranks right into Tennozu High."
"T-that sounds like a reasonable plan, I suppose." Argo chose to admit. True, he didn't want to fight the SDF, but if they followed that plan, they would minimize SDF casualties while also indirectly fighting together against Da'ath.
"You say that as if it was an easy feat, Yahiro." Ayase eventually piped up with a sigh and folded arms. "Even if things go smooth and we easily get through the SDF barricade, we will still face a considerable enemy force once we are inside loop seven. One which even held and fought back the SDF. We might have roughly enough resources to fight them, but if they push us back, we will have nothing left for a second try. And if the SDF decides to fall into our backs while we are in the middle of engaging the Mananites, we would be completely surrounded. We don't have enough manpower and weaponry to fight them both at the same time."
"That is not exactly true, Ayase." This time, Haruka spoke up with a serious expression. "From what I can tell so far, every evolved person that came back from that void realm is, in fact, worth at least twice a normal person. With the potential to even triple that amount depending on the power of their void. From a scientific standpoint, it is quite amazing, but from a human one…let's just say their difference is very frightening."
Her brother next to her added calmly: "Genesis, as you call them, are what many governments had tried to achieve during the last couple of decades in their top secret "super soldier programs". In fact, Da'ath had had their own experiments going on regarding that matter. Still, what they had managed to achieve amounts to next to nothing when faced with the superiority of evolution.
"You know, that makes me kinda curios. When you speak of superiority, what do you mean, exactly?" Argo questioned the scientists with raised eyebrows, causing Haruka to answer him with a worried frown.
"Keido and I had run tests on many Evolies during the past two weeks and we came to the conclusion that Genesis are better in every aspect. It would not be exaggerated to say that they truly are the next step of human evolution. They can easily surpass a normal person in strength, intellect, agility and even their life spans."
"Seriously? How unreal…" The representative of the humans mumbled in shock as his expression formed into a grimace which could at best be described as a mixture of astonishment and fear.
"Hold on just a second!" The somewhat sleepy Hare finally said. The revealed information apparently caught her interest all of a sudden. "What do you mean with 'even their life spans'?"
In regard of the girl's question, Keido cleared his throat for a second, before explaining: "This actually shouldn't come to a big surprise to most Genesis, especially the older ones. Surely you must have noticed that most of the older folks looked and felt younger after they had gone through evolution, yes? That is because they are. Haruka and I could not have tested this, seeing as we needed to observe certain evolved persons over a longer time span to actually present clear proof, but Da'ath themselves already had the theory that evolution would at least double the potential life span of Genesis. That is probably one of the reasons they are so obsessed with it, too. Think about it: It may not be eternal youth, but would make your youth last twice as long as it would normally. Furthermore, if you went through the process of the apocalypse with the body of a 40 year old and could evolve into a body of a 20 year old, wouldn't you like that?"
"That's certainly true. A lot of powerful people would also pay a lot of money to have a chance to be young again." Yahiro agreed with a bitter expression to which Keido merely nodded.
"Exactly. Da'ath got a lot of investors through their so called "Devil's pacts" which allowed them to become this powerful in the first place. Unfortunately, I never got to know who these money givers were, but I am willing to bet it were a lot."
"So…looks like at least half of us will outlive the other half present, huh…" Jun finally realized with a sad expression while looking over at his big brother. The rest couldn't help but do the same.
"Ironic, isn't it?" Keido said with a bitter chuckle. "What was meant to be humanity's biggest blessing turned out to be a curse instead as we are now forced to see our non-evolved loved ones perish before us.
It was true. Had the apocalypse been triggered and not stopped, it would have affected everyone on earth in the same way. More people would have died, but at least every remaining one would have been granted a longer live with everyone else who would have made it as well. Now, it would end up tearing friends and family apart as Genesis would live in their own time, while normal humans did in theirs. Truly unfortunate. Maybe this was nature's revenge for humanity, since it tried to escape its own fate. Who could truly tell?
The atmosphere had been quite grim for a while before Ayase broke the silence with a groan. "Enough of that. Since we can't change it, how about we get back to the problem at hand? For example, what had all of this to do with my calculations being off?"
Shu was first to answer her. "Simply said, mother tried to tell us that even if we had to fight the SDF and Mananites together, we could still stand a chance as long as we have Genesis as well."
His explanation, however, only raised more questions for them. Tsugumi blinked a few times in confusion and asked: "But aren't Mananites Genesis, too?"
"Yes." Inori agreed. "But they are heavily unorganized and barbaric. In all my 5 years of fighting them with a considerable smaller army, I never had much difficulty standing my ground."
Hare continued from there. "That's true. Mananites tend to fight amongst themselves more often than not. They are like a pack of wolves, constantly gnarling and barking at each other as they try to show dominance over one another. When fighting them, you will notice many smaller groups coming at you, rather than a unified army. To them, bringing the enemy down is a competition, for if you succeed in taking out many enemies or even a high priority target, you would receive a reward from Mana."
Following that, Jun folded his arms in front of his chest and told everyone with a proud nod: "And to top it all off, as long as Mana won't show herself in person, we will have a big advantage by sending in our queen herself. Plus, there is Shu as well."
"I get why Shu is a key person here, but what is this about Inori?" It was Argo again, who asked this in a rather skeptical way. Keido answered him.
"She is a fake Eve. Eve is the one who brings the apocalypse. If you said an Genesis is worth two or even three normal humans, than Eve would be worth at least 100 or more. You can think of it as chess, where she would be the queen piece. Da'ath is very unfortunate to have created a fake one. Especially since she went rouge on them."
"A hundred or more…? Seriously…?" The young ex-SDF member involuntarily flinched at those numbers and threw a serious look at Inori. When he had first met her, she had been nothing more than a quiet girl, following around Gai at all times. Now look at her, having gained all these fancy powers. Was she even still human? For that fact, were Genesis even still human in general?
The queen couldn't help but notice him staring at her and confusedly tilted her head to the side as she asked: "Is something the matter, Argo?"
"Ah, no. It's nothing. These were just some scary numbers, is all. With things like this, I just wonder if we humans are still needed at all…?" He offered her an awkward smile.
"Don't be afraid, Argo. We are on the same side." She told him. Next to her, Shu nodded and added:
"No matter how much you think Genesis are scary, Da'ath is scarier. So scary, in fact, that we will need everyone to help out against them. The Genesis can't do this alone, so it is important for them and humans to get along and fight together. We can't afford to have internal struggles while we have to deal with Mananites, Da'ath and whoever it is that is backing them. And there is the SDF as well. This will be the Undertakers' hardest fight yet."
"I understand that, Shu…it's just…not all Undertaker's are that understanding…"
Jun sighed. "I suppose some Genesis are not helpful in that regard, either. Quite a couple of them are getting pretty cocky towards their non-evolved counterparts."
"Then I suppose we should keep everything Haruka and Keido just said in this room strictly." Yahiro suggested. "If word goes around how superior Genesis exactly are, it might only widen the gap between both parties through jealously, fear and overconfidence."
"Just like when you hid the fact about voids back at Tennozu, hm?" Ayase remarked somewhat bitterly before turning to Shu. "I don't like this, Shu." Before he could answer, Tsugumi butted in.
"Me neither, but he has a point. If things between Genesis and humans are already this tense, facts like these would only make it worse. We should focus on uniting them before sharing such crucial information."
"Then let's keep it a secret for now, like Yahiro suggests. We can always tell them later, when the time is better." The brown haired king decided, to which Ayase only frowned.
"Or worse…"
"I am fine with keeping that a secret, for now…" Came Argo's agreement. Even he had to admit that an escalation due to the revelation of this information was in neither of their interests. "Though, there is another problem as well. The Undertaker veterans want to strike as soon as possible. They get more anxious with every passing day we won't take the initiative. With the apocalypse right around the corner, they fear waiting for too long would be our undoing."
"Which is true, I suppose." Shu said with a nod after he had heard Argo's concerns. "Technically, the apocalypse can happen any time now. However, Da'ath could have triggered it two weeks ago. Why wait? It is this delay that makes me think they are still missing something. And that's why I believe we still have a bit of time, though not much."
"Well, why do WE wait, then? We have just established that we are powerful enough to take the Genesis in loop seven on. If we do this now, we might even be able to fight our way through the Mananites directly over to Tennozu High before the SDF could even mobilize their forces to get in our way."
"That's risky." Yahiro disagreed. "We don't know how far the SDF is with their preparation for their third offensive. It is all about timing. If we attack too early while the SDF is almost finished with their preparations, they might see our attack and flank us from behind, which would only make things difficult for us and would cost us our advantage with the creation of a second front."
"Besides…" His little brother also felt the need to add something. "The Genesis are against rash actions. If we present them a rushed plan, they might not be willing to march into battle. With their void realm 'immortality' gone, they are quite reluctant to risk death too easily."
"That's all easy for you to say, just because you guys are immune to the virus…" Argo growled in return. "It's not you guys who will die if the apocalypse happens again, is it?" Jun, however, stood his ground in front of the older man as he returned his cold stare with one of his own.
"Maybe so, but many of our family members and friends are still humans like you." He took a short glance over to his older brother, before locking eyes with Argo again. "Of course we share the mutual interest to prevent an apocalypse which stands as a potential risk of killing them."
"All the more reason to perform a pre-emptive strike, no?"
"Have you even been listening to my big brother?"
"Enough." Inori's voice suddenly brought silence to the room. "How can we expect Genesis and humans to get along, if even their chosen representatives begin arguing with each other?" She scolded them, causing Jun to close his eyes defeatedly as he realized his mistake. Argo seemed less eager to let the matter rest, but even he had to eventually see that Inori had a point. It wasn't like he WANTED to cause more trouble between both factions, and so he, too, started to relax a bit.
"I am sorry, Inori."
"Yeah, sorry about that. My bad."
After he saw them both apologizing, Yahiro couldn't help but sigh.
"You know, it's not like I would have presented this plan if I had doubts that the SDF would begin their operations in the coming days. I know that we cannot wait forever and I share the anxiety of every human, since I am in the same boat as you are, Argo. Still, I think this is the best shot we have and I highly suggest we go with that. Shu agreed with me when we talked about it this morning as well."
As if to confirm Yahiro's claim, Shu added with a nod: "That's correct. It's not like we thought of this plan on a whim. And I agree that we cannot wait forever. If the SDF won't make a move soon, we will. We hardly have a choice."
"…Fine. I will try convincing everyone else that we should go with your plan. A battle with better odds of survival is generally not bad either way. It's not like we all have a death wish or something…"
"What can we do in the meantime, though? It could be a couple of days before the SDF mobilizes again…" The sole wheelchair bound girl among them wanted to know.
"Right…" Yahiro said and urged everyone else to have another look at the holo-screen. "So far, we still haven't talked about our biggest problem yet. In battle, knowledge is power. To know the strengths and weaknesses of your enemy is a crucial factor that could decide the outcome of every conflict."
Suddenly, he made the screen divide into three parts, each containing various information about their potential enemies. However, while the charts for the SDF and Mananites bore a considerable amount of details, the one for Da'ath remained almost empty. The strategist of the group focused on that chart by enlarging it and letting the other two disappear.
"And yet, while we managed to gather at least something about the SDF and the enemy Genesis in loop seven, we still know next to nothing about the mysterious organization that apparently is behind this whole mess. We don't know how large it is, who its members are or how much resources they have at their disposal. Frankly speaking, they are a large question mark to us. And that is very bad."
"We basically only know that they want to bring the apocalypse and that they have enough backing through rich and influential people." Hare thought out aloud.
"Plus, there is that envoy that nearly killed Shu and the rest of us not so long ago." Ayase added with a serious expression. Once she had mentioned him, Yahiro showed a phantom drawing of him on the screen.
"He's in fact the only face we can directly tie to Da'ath and yet we don't even have a real image, just this drawing I sketched from memory."
"Yuu…a damn cocky brat who I never liked, even back when I still was with Da'ath." Keido remarked with clear annoyance in his voice. "He is not called the envoy of Da'ath for nothing, since he is the only member they will ever let you meet in person. If you ever saw his face, then that's only because he wanted you to see it. Whenever you need something of them, he will show up and deal with the problem. No matter what it is. As incredibly resourceful, cunning and powerful as he is, having him for an enemy is the worst thing that could happen to you…"
"That's true." Shu reluctantly agreed with downcast eyes. "He is not a man you can easily deal with. No matter what I did in the past, he always was a step ahead of me. It's all as if I was playing right into his hands from the very beginning. Even when I ventured into the void to rescue Inori and the others, it turned out to be nothing but a trick of him to get access to the gateway connecting both worlds. He even took one of my two void genomes. I can only curse at my own foolishness to not having seen that coming. I should have known it would not be that easy…"
"Don't be too hard on yourself, Shu…I don't think anyone could have predicted this outcome…" Haruka tried to comfort him. His queen, too, tried to cheer him up by gently holding his hand, resulting in a weak, yet thankful smile from him in return.
His brown haired friend next to him cleared his throat to get back to the problem at hand. "As you can see, this is all we know, which really amounts to next to nothing. Without more information on Da'ath, we are likely to run into a lot of trouble once we decide to face them."
"I already tried my best…" Tsugumi told them with a sigh. "I hacked myself into various databases and searched the net about ANYTHING that could give us more information on Da'ath, but all there is are rumors and urban legends, with one sounding more ridiculous than the other. It's as if Da'ath themselves managed the internet and deleted everything that could lead to them while purposely leaving behind false trails. Our best bet would be to get our hands on a direct source, rather than relying on digital ones…"
Upon her mention of a direct source, all eyes immediately directed themselves into Keido's direction, whose eyes in return only closed themselves in frustration.
"Even if you all look at me, it is an undeniable fact that I have not been in contact with Da'ath for 5 long years. I would know nothing of their current plans or with who they might have allied themselves with."
This answer didn't seem to please the brunette Endlave pilot among them, seeing as she eyed the ex-Antibodies leader suspiciously.
"Are you sure you can't tell us anything? Or is it rather that you don't want to?"
"Yeah, I am still not really convinced of his loyalty myself." Argo agreed with folded arms. "After all, this guy nearly got us all killed more than once."
It was no one else but his sister, who came to his defense. "He is trying really hard, you know…we all have more than enough reasons to be mad at him, but everyone deserves a second chance, right?"She told them with narrowed eyes, obviously slightly irritated with them, followed by taking a glance at her brother, who awkwardly averted his own gaze out of embarrassment. He obviously wasn't comfortable with this whole situation. Haruka merely smiled, knowing that deep down, he was thankful, even though he was bad at showing it.
"A-Anyway…all I can say for sure is that Da'ath always has acted in the shadows by hiding behind the name of a different group, such as GHQ in the past. That's the only way they can operate while still remaining undetected by the rest of the world. If you want to know more about them, finding out who is aiding them this time should be your first course of action."
"Well, the men we encountered at Tennozu High spoke fluent Japanese and also didn't look like they were foreigners from what little we could make out of them." Yahiro thought out aloud while holding his chin with his right hand, obviously trying to concentrate. "Could be a Japanese group this time who is backing them up." He concluded.
"The endlaves they used were also Japanese models." Ayase added. "They looked like the ones we used to purchase on the black market back in the days we still fought GHQ."
Tsugumi then proceeded to nonchalantly press several spots on the holo-screen on her portable computer while explaining: "Well, looking at the few large companies in Japan which still have enough money and influence to afford buying endlaves and hiring mercenaries isn't that hard. Aren't many of them left after the economy crash of Lost Christmas. The only ones which are still running strong are the ones which hold a global presence. You could probably count them all with just two hands. There." With a final touch, she sent the results of her search up to the big holo-screen on the center of the table for everyone else to see.
A small list of little more than 10 big company names showed up and the small group spent some time to look at the familiar names, until one in particular caught their interest. Some of them shared a knowing look with each other. Ayase was the first to say what the majority of the gang already thought.
"You guys don't think it's her, right?"
"There is no way she could be that stupid…" Yahiro sighed and irritatingly massaged his forehead.
Inori frowned and Shu's expression involuntarily darkened a bit once they, too, came to the same conclusion.
"Arisa…" He quietly mumbled as he subconsciously touched his right arm once the memories of her betrayal came to mind. Indeed, The Kuhouin Group's name was found among the few ones Tsugumi had dug up. And with the blond haired young woman as its heir, she ended up inheriting the company of her late grandfather, who went and got killed by her in self defense before he had thought of disowning her. Or perhaps he just hadn't been able to force himself to do it, with her having been his biggest pride. Even though she had ended up losing her way and going astray.
The general reaction of everyone made Hare sigh in disappointment as realization struck her. "So…it is true what Inori told us in the void realm, huh? Arisa really joined the bad guys…"
"Well, she certainly did 5 years ago…but who knows if she still is affiliated with them? We could be jumping to conclusions here…" Haruka said in the girl's defense. "I have actually known the Kuhouin family for a long time now…to think of them as an enemy now feels just…wrong somehow…"
"To think they would still be allies now that Arisa took the lead wouldn't be right either, though." Shu objected and shook his head. "Anyway, it's our biggest lead regarding Da'ath so far, seeing as she had joined them before and even has a motive to aid them. We should investigate."
"Want me to hack into their database? Could take me a while, though." Tsugumi suggested.
"No, as you said. If she truly is on Da'ath's side, she would not leave any digital trails behind which could point into their direction. Da'ath themselves would make sure of that."
His brown haired friend next to him agreed. "Shu is right. If we want info on Da'ath, we will have to get it from her directly."
"So you mean…"
"Exactly." Shu nodded and looked at them all with a serious expression. "Let's go and pay her a visit."
-GC-
The meeting ended not long after that with only some additional minor details of their agenda left for them to discuss. Once taken care of, the king had been quick to end it due to the fact that it had already been getting late and most of them had been exhausted. Everyone had returned to their personal rooms soon after, with the king and his queen being no exception to this.
Naturally, after Shu had recovered from his injuries, he and Inori had moved into Gai's old room to sleep in. Well, in fact, Inori had pretty much moved them in with him just tagging along. It probably had felt natural to her to get back into this room, having probably slept in here with Gai on the few occasions they had actually been here in Yokohama together.
And though he also already knew that nothing had been going on between them, Shu still felt relieved to see this room actually had had two beds. One for Gai and another one for Inori. What made things even better was that Inori didn't use her old bed anymore. Instead, they would share his one. Unfortunately, this was also were the good part ended, because that was all that has been going on. They slept in it together. Literally. Nothing else had happened yet. And while Shu certainly had intentions to change that fact some day, he was afraid it would not happen at the present time and location. For he felt he would do Inori injustice to let their first time be on an old dirty mattress in a dusty, old room, even though he had the slight feeling she wouldn't care as much as he would himself.
And besides…who knew if Tsugumi hadn't secretly put cameras in here while no one was looking? He would rather get out there and hand himself over to the SDF than to risk her filming their first time. While he was sure the younger hacker wasn't evil enough to share the resulting video footage with all their friends, he was certain enough she would spread the news verbally instead, which was only better by a slight margin.
"Shu?"
His queen caught him spacing out while standing in front of his own personal holo-screen set up in their room. On it was, yet again, a geographical projection of Tokyo with all its strategically interesting points, just like the one Yahiro had shown them earlier. He was using it to get over the plan one more time, ensuring it would work out the way he and Yahiro thought it would. He just turned towards her with a gentle smile and asked:
"Yes?"
"We should go to sleep."
"Go ahead, I will be right behind you. Just have to make sure of something…"
Inori, however, only reacted by narrowing her eyes on him in discontent. "You said that yesterday as well and then I fell asleep waiting for you to join me."
"Oh, you are right. Sorry about that." He gave her an apologetic laugh and awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "I can turn down the lights a bit if they bother you."
"That's not the problem…" Now she visibly frowned at him, causing him to blink in confusion.
"Oh…am I to loud then, perhaps?"
She ignored his question and decided to ask him one of her own instead. "You haven't slept at all, have you?"
"Huh?"
"This morning, when I woke up, you were already awake. You said you woke up only shortly before me…that was a lie, wasn't it? You were awake all night."
"What…? No, I…"
"Are you lying again?" She looked at him directly with reddish eyes devoid of accusation, anger, disappointment or anything of that sort. It was as if all they were asking him was: "Are you?". Looking at those pure, worrying eyes of hers, slightly sparkling in the dim light of the table lamp next to them, the king just couldn't bring himself to lie to her. Sighing in defeat, he admitted:
"Yes…I stayed up all night."
Once she heard him say that, she wordlessly went over to his computer and pressed a button to shut it off immediately. She then proceeded to do the same with the small lamp on the table. Once she was done, all that could be seen in the room were their barely visible silhouettes from the faint moonlight entering from a window to their right. He felt her taking both his hand with each of her own and leading him toward their bed slowly.
"Come…"
"Inori, I really needed to finish that…"
"No, you need to sleep." He heard her getting into the bed first and from there she pulled him closer so he would join her. Thinking that further resistance was futile at this point, he gave in and lied down next to her, so that they would face each other. The moment he had lied down, he could feel her wrap her arms around him, probably to make sure he would not get up after she herself would have fallen asleep. He couldn't help but smirk at that. It seemed he would really have to sleep tonight.
"Alright, you win. There is no beating you." He admitted defeat and decided to hold her close as well, making her smile in relief. That was the moment he also finally realized how tired he really had become. The second he had given up, all his remaining energy just seemed to leave him altogether. It felt as if he just melted away in her arms. A pleasant fragrance of strawberries coming from her hair filled his nostrils as his eyelids started to grow heavy. With his last remaining power, he decided to hold her even closer, not wanting to ever let her go.
Yes, perhaps going to sleep really wasn't that bad of an idea after all, was his last though as he drifted off to sleep for good.
Noticing that, Inori just gently stroke his hair followed by burying her face into his chest. A satisfied smile was present on her lips as she, too, fell asleep.
"Good night, Shu."
So, this, as well as the previous chapters used to be one single one before...
Writing it was really hard and a long process for me, since I always wrote a bit, then suddenly lost confidence, dropped it again only to pick it up after several months after I felt bad due to some reviewers begging for an update.
Due to that, this chapter is actually nothing else but a huge patchwork chapter. I just hope it isn't too noticeable where I left off and where I eventually returned to continue writing this.
Another huge problem was that I began writing this with the location of Roppongi Fort (original Undertaker hideout shown in the anime) in mind and only noticed towards the end that Roppongi couldn't possibly be the location due to the fact that it was located inside loop seven. Then I had to go back and rewrite any scene which referred to anime locations so that it would make sense. I was pretty annoyed at that.
I also ended up leaving out scenes that I thought would be funny/cool to have due to fearing it was getting too sidetracked and slowing down the actual plot.
Among those were a scene with Jun in a bar with Shu asking him if he even was allowed to drink yet due to being underage (last time I checked, you needed to be 23 to drink in Japan). I had a pretty funny dialogue in mind, but eventually scrapped the scene for the refectory one we got in the end.
Another one was Haruka and Keido in the lab, focusing more on how angry Haruka was with him at first but her forgiving him due to how bad he felt for his past sins. It would have been nice to show in order to show some development, but was eventually scrapped because it dragged the chapter out for too long. Instead we got the Tsugumi / Haruka scene.
I have the feeling like there was more, but I must have already forgotten them. Too bad.
